UK education and opinions of manga

I often see younger artists at events and they tell me "my teacher doesn't like manga" and other similar tales. (And, exasperated teachers, please read this excellent piece, and a great follow up here regards "mangaphobia".)

Some teachers do not mind Japanese comic style, most do not 'accept' it (or comic style in general!). I think there are some things that can be learnt from this, so take heed!

I suggest "do what you have to do for your exams" - because it will improve your art anyway! I do not like the whole "ugh, don't draw manga" thing (some teachers are guilty of this), because it kills student's enthusiasm and art development - but I feel a better tactic would be to say "you can do this good enough now, so try drawing better [buildings? Foliage? Animals? Clothing folds?] to improve your comics". Drawing things you don't like will ultimately improve your entire comic-making experience, as well as taking influence from stuff other than Japanese media.

Why submit artwork you like to someone who will be grading it and marking it down due to both National Curriculum requirements and personal taste? You do not need an exam result for something you can (should!) develop in your own time. There is no such thing as "manga GCSE"/"comics GCSE" or a 9-5 "manga" "comics desk job" :) (There is a MLitt available, though, and The University of East Anglia, near Norwich, will launch a Master of Arts program in Comics Studies in September 2020).

You do not have to submit comics as part of your arts courses, but DO make comics in your own time if you are inspired too. Draw what you need to do for your schoolwork (obviously make sure you are working hard on your exam work! Priorities!) and utilise those July-August summer holidays because you will miss having those as an adult!

As a creative person, in life you will find that you usually have to "spin plates" - doing many things at the same time. You may likely have a full-time or part-time job in the day (doing something completely unrelated to art) and do your comic in the evening (especially for unpaid comic pitches to publishers, the advertising and desktop publishing stuff that comes with self publishing etc). So learning to do this when you are at school is supergood practice for freelancing - a huge majority of commissions will be ad-hoc random things, so these can be done whilst doing a more full-on job. Rotate what jobs make you happy throughout life as required.

Do life drawing! Being influenced by one style of comic art is really restrictive and you can end up drawing some totally weird anatomy. Don't get trapped! I think we are all guilty of this narrow focusing at some point, though - so a great thing to help is Life Drawing and Still Life Drawing. Don't wait for your school/college to offer it up either - your local community colleges and groups should offer some, so Google to see what's near your area and get involved with those classes.

When drawing, do take note of numerous Japanese comic artists who have been influenced by European artists - everyone seems to forget Osamu Tezuka was incredibly influenced by 1950's Disney films, after all - and amalgamate many influences into your work, as any artist would.